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للقراءة باللغة العربية Dear Friends, This year has marked the start of a shift in our mission. Going forward, our work will focus much more exclusiv
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Dear Friends,
This year has marked the start of a shift in our mission. Going forward, our work will focus much more exclusively on research and advocacy for digital rights, like free expression and privacy online. Preserving these rights and others—like access to information and access to the Internet—is increasingly important because digital space is sometimes the only space available to civil society organizations, political opposition, and others who hold power accountable with their questions and dissent.
In this edition of our newsletter, we bring you up to speed on our digital rights work to date, fill you in on what’s in store this month’s Arab IGF in Beirut, and give you a preview of what we’re working on for next year. Enjoy it, and feel free to ping us with comments or questions. In the meantime, we wish you and yours a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!
The SMEX Team |
Get to Know the Voices & Forces that Govern Your Internet at the Arab IGF
For the second year in a row, Beirut will host the Arab Internet Governance Forum from December 16–18. This year’s theme is “Internet Economy for Sustainable Development.” SMEX has actively participated in the last two Arab IGFs, as a strong voice for digital rights and civil society. This year, as a cooperating partner, SMEX will organize social media coverage of the event by a group of journalism students and other digital reporters led by NDU journalism lecturer Rouba El Helou.
The forum provides an open space to become familiar with technical protocols (like IPV6, policy and legislation, and social and economic issues that affect Internet governance in the Arab world. Even if your group’s focus isn’t on technology, the forum offers an excellent opportunity to raise awareness about how technology and technology policy intersects with other concerns, such as free expression, gender equality, education, and economic empowerment. Anyone can register for the Arab IGF and participate in the coverage. |
 A visualization of Anti-Cybercrime laws in the region from the dataset. |
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Launching the Arab Digital Rights Dataset: Volume I, the Legislative Edition
Over the last two years, SMEX, partners, and volunteers teamed up to collect laws and other legal measures that govern digital rights in 20 Arab countries. Then, this summer, we used the do-it-yourself #dataviz platform Silk.co to visualize the data at smex.silk.co and presented it for the first time to 30 researchers at the Internet Policy Observatory Research Methods in the MENA workshop in Istanbul.
Users can explore the dataset by country, type of law, language, year, as well as other parameters. The dataset is one of a group of datasets on the Arab internet that SMEX will be compiling and releasing as open data. To learn more about the initiative and how you can use data for storytelling, check out this webinar with Silk.co. |
CITIZENFOUR Premieres in Lebanon
In September, SMEX hosted the first screening of Laura Poitras’ landmark film CITIZENFOUR at Ashkal Alwan in Beirut. The film was screened with Arabic subtitles, drew more than 150 attendees and inspired a timely conversation on local surveillance policies. Stay tuned to learn about future screenings in 2016. |
Campaigning for Our Allies
Every strong human rights agenda includes campaigning for the release of those imprisoned for their work. Here are some recent initiatives for three of our colleagues: |
Bassel Khartabil (Syria): A Syrian open-Internet advocate, Bassel has been in prison in Syria since March 2012. This fall he was secretly moved from Adra prison outside Damascus to an undisclosed location. It is feared that he has been sentenced to death by a military court. A petition demanding to know has garnered more than 38,000 signatures, but no news. You can carry this campaign forward by drafting a letter to UN Secretary General Nan ki-Moon and posting with the hashtag #FreeBassel. |
Alaa Abd El Fattah (Egypt): To commemorate the first anniversary of his imprisonment, family, friends, and supporters from around the world became Alaa for a day by changing their avatars to Alaa’s signature red and yellow portrait and tweeting out quotes from him. Follow #FreeAlaa. |
Opportunities: Advocate with SMEX
In 2016, SMEX will produce a series of podcasts on digital rights in the Arab world. We’re looking for a producer who can make them memorable. If it’s you, please send your CV and a pitch for the series to jobs@smex.org. We’re also recruiting for an operations manager and a campaigns and events specialist. And we’re always looking for enthusiastic volunteers and interns. |
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